A new resolution introduced in the US Senate offers political backing to the Bush administration by slamming a United Nations effort to exert more influence over the Internet. At the heart of this international political spat is the unique influence that the US federal government enjoys over Internet addresses and the master database of top-level domain names - a legacy of the Internet's origins years ago. The Bush administration recently raised objections to the proposed addition of .xxx as a red-light district for pornographers, for instance, a veto power that no other government is able to wield.

It has nothing to do with your country's gov. It has to do with the lack of IP the US regulatory gave to your country. I'm guessing that if Croaty had a high number of IP available, things would be different.

Sorry, it has everything to do with a country's laws and therefore, lawmakers (or, in other words, government). Some countries are worse than others in this respect, that's all.

On a side note: to illustrate just how bad the situation in Finland used to be, I'll tell you that even many Finnish companies (who therefore, had the right to register .fi domains) opted for .com or .net domains, because it was cheaper. Finlands largest auction site is, for example, huuto.net. One of the largest online retailers is hetanttila.com, and the largest computer hardware store is www.verkkokauppa.net. Why was it expensive to register a .fi? because of the monopolistic status the finnish registrars were in. It was all a bit too communist-bureocracy-like.

My suggestion would be to fix the problem within your country. You just said that it is cheaper to register with US controlled domain versus the Finnish controlling body. Now imagine if the UN had control of this. Do you really think it would be cheaper?

I am not bashing Europeans here, I am just pointing out facts. Typically, items/services are cheaper to purchase in the US versus in Europe.